Over 100 years Düsterloh

From a "factory for mining supplies" to a modern fluid technology company

Düsterloh has been developing and producing fluid technology products for over 100 years. All over the world, the drives, controls and power units from Hattingen are appreciated for their absolute reliability even under extreme operating conditions.

The in-house development and design department and a wide range of products of the owner-managed company ensure pronounced flexibility and customer orientation.

The company portrait presents Düsterloh's history and current product portfolio.

History from 1906 until today

In 1906, Gustav Düsterloh founded the company as a "factory for mining supplies". The main products were initially pneumatic hammers for coal mining and pneumatic hammers for drilling blast holes.

By 1920, the company was already focusing on underground transport technology based on pneumatic drives. Until then, underground transportation had been carried out with the aid of pit horses (8,000 in the Ruhr region alone at the time of the company's founding, and 400 in 1956). The use of pneumatic drives for winches and haulers marked the beginning of the mechanization of underground transportation. The compressors needed to supply compressed air were available and were used to operate the jackhammers. Today, transport is carried out by rail-bound electric or diesel locomotives, as well as by monorail overhead conveyors pulled by "diesel cats".

In 1955, Düsterloh started the production of hydraulic pumps and cylinders for mining and industry. In hard coal mining, wooden stamps were first replaced by steel stamps, then by hydraulic stamps, and finally by shield support. With the production of the hydraulic pumps and cylinders required for this purpose, Düsterloh opened up a further field of activity. The Düsterloh pneumatic starter was introduced to the market in 1961. The rapidly growing shipbuilding industry in Germany with the almost exclusive use of large diesel engines as propulsion systems led to the development and market introduction of Düsterloh pneumatic starters.

In 1967 Düsterloh introduced the world's first radial piston hydraulic motor with internal piston support for transport services in hard coal mining. Increasing mining capacities on site in the longwall mining area required analogously increasing transport capacities underground. The newly developed Düsterloh radial piston engine was particularly well suited for this purpose due to its special performance characteristics. Today's generation still offers very high power density, excellent controllability, high starting torque, insensitivity to adverse environmental influences and explosion protection.

The development of integrated starter-control unit systems took place in 1990. The actual starter is expanded to include the desired peripherals. According to a modular system, pressure reducers, strainers, safety valves, "turn covers" and more can be included here. In 1997 the market introduction of Düsterloh axial piston motors started. With this, the range of hydraulic motors was supplemented by a fast-running type series, which also runs with very low vibration. There are many applications for this motor series that cannot be covered by radial piston motors. A typical example is automatic circular forging machines in which the feed of the forging hammers has to be changed in the millisecond range.

In 2006, the production of power units for the operation and control of hydraulic motors and cylinders was expanded into an independent business segment. Düsterloh produces power packs according to customer specifications for supplying entire plants or factories with pressurized hydraulic medium. The latest new development presented at the Hanover Fair 2011 were the hydraulic high-precision motors (Fig. 1). They achieve an unprecedented speed consistency, and that at speeds from 0.1 min-1.

Düsterloh supplies the systems "from a single source," including motors and cylinders as well as electronic control with wiring, including multilingual documentation. Düsterloh systems are used in all areas of mechanical and plant engineering. Certification of Düsterloh Fluidtechnik GmbH according to ISO 9001:2008 ensures that the highest quality standards are met.

Conclusion

Due to decades of comprehensive competence in hydraulics and pneumatics, Düsterloh is able to develop and realize integrated drive concepts together with the customer. The significantly long service life of the drives due to unchanged high quality standards reduces the lifecycle costs for the user and increases the sustainability of his production.